HAK55: Malaysia needs a New Force

Malaysia needs a New Force

Why do I want to be an independent candidate in the GE 13?

Our country has been, for the last 50 years or so, essentially, been ruled by more or less the same group of people representing various parties and communities; initially known as the Parti Perikatan (Perikatan/Alliance) with a ‘sampan’ (boat) as their symbol and later the Barisan Nasional (BN) with a ‘dacing’ (balance) as their symbol and whilst it cannot be denied that the country has gone through numerous developments over the years and, if I may say, comparatively, is better than some countries in ASEAN and many African, East European, Central Asian and South American countries, there are definitely much more that could be done. This group’s leadership principles, philosophy, methodology, problem solving approach, inconsistencies in making decisions, discretionary judiciary system, inferior management and administration system in many government departments, etc. have been the same all these while and nothing much have changed. By right, given the people we have and the ‘real’ wealth this country has, we should already by now, since a long time ago to some, a country that has achieved developed country status, at least, on par with our immediate neighbour Singapore, if not better.

We have natural resources in abundance, a strong currency, a healthy reserve, a massive agriculture and primary products industry, a leading oil producer, a large manufacturing and services sector, a thriving import-export trade and transhipment, a very long shoreline and waters that contain plenty of hidden unexplored wealth as well as huge tracts of unexplored land in the interiors, in particular states like Pahang, Kelantan, Perak, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak, excellent overall infrastructure and last but not least, a big pool of human resource with knowledge, skills and know-how comparable to what many developed countries have.

I am quite shocked to learn that one UMNO veteran who was a long time state assemblyman of a particular state that has been touted as one of the richest state in the country and a former state EXCO member for several terms who still thinks that there’s no other political party in this country that is better than UMNO/BN and what have been achieved by them over the last 50 years can never be bettered. Is this a common stand and attitude of all UMNO veterans and other members of the coalition party’s component and worse still, is this also the common stand and attitude of all UMNO members and other members of the coalition party’s component now? If this is so, then this country is heading towards disaster!

We can all generally put the blame on the country’s failure in achieving developed country status and being behind in competitiveness when compared to developed countries in the region such as Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to: corruption, nepotism, cronyism, favouritism, serving personal interests, serving personal agendas, inter- community and intra - community disunity including inter - religious and intra - religious disunity, unfair distribution of wealth and power, poor management of funds, poor child and youth development programme, poor housing programme for the masses especially for the poor, poor public transportation, increasing cost of living, poor management of essential services such as education, immigration, policing and crime control, customs, defence, etc. but most of all, lack of foresight and proper systems of administration shown by the majority of our leaders, politicians and lawmakers and administrators. There are, of course, other causes, but they all can be considered as less prominent.

I think the country needs people who are more concerned about the country’s current state and more importantly, the country’s future. The country, within the next ten years, must achieve ‘developed country’ or’ 1st World’ status and the lawmakers must stop indulging in unnecessary in-fighting and use the Dewan Negara and the Dewan Negara and State Assemblies as a forum used to improve the country and achieve the status that we are after.

This group of people are not necessary an opposition group; all good proposals/laws shall be supported and all the bad ones, objected, all in the people’s and the country’s interest. It is impossible for one person to achieve all that and so, more people who have the same conviction, are needed. I see the advent of a new movement coming to the country in the form of independent candidates comprising intellectuals, academics, professionals, sub-professionals and people on the street, committed Malaysian men and women of all races and faiths with the required know-how, talent, skills and experience, who will contest in the country’s 13th General Elections, happening in about two years from now. I foresee that many will return victorious and they will form a loose organisation of ‘like-minded’ people assisting the government to achieve the country’s aspirations. This is the the Third Force that Malaysia needs.

As a prospective candidate myself, if I can win when I contest the coming GE 13 and get elected as the people’s representative as a Member of Parliament and State Assemblyman, even for just one term, I will work very hard to make better changes for the sake of the people and the country and if I am able to get just one major change done that will give a long benefit to the majority of Malaysians, within that one term, I will be a very happy and contented man and I will die a very happy and contented man too. Obviously, one man cannot do very much, so, more people are needed to achieve the many things that the country needs in order to be better.

A. What are the common the common things that the people want? Below is the list containing some of them:

1. Democracy – maintain true democratic policy and system of government.
2. Nationhood – Make the Malays, Chinese, Indians and others who are citizens of this country and who live in this country live as one people, i.e. Malaysian. Whilst it is accepted that Bahasa Malaysia is the national language, English language must be taught and used in/at all schools and universities and the teaching and use of all vernacular and a foreign language must be encouraged.
3. Improve standard of living (one standard for the whole country).
4. Better and fairer distribution of wealth.
5. Encourage more people to save and inculcate in the people the ‘saving culture’.
6. Improve efficiency and have better management and administration of all public services/mistakes must not be repeated.
7. Independent judiciary.
8. Independent Anti-Corruption Body.
9. Public servants must improve their attitude and be ‘customer friendly’.
10. Improve cost savings by introducing the use of IT systems and procedures and computerisation.
11. Better pay and perks for civil servants.
12. Introduce better education system especially for pre-school, primary and secondary education; re-introduce English medium schools; for a start, have government aided and subsidised English medium schools.
13. Have better management of school problems and problems at schools/improve facilities at schools.
14. Reduce/subsidise public universities/college fees.
15. Stop brain drain.
16. Students must be instilled in them the competitive spirit and we must be able to produce scholars that are accepted worldwide especially by developing and developed countries.
17. Cut out corruption.
18. Cut out nepotism.
19. Cut out cronyism.
20. Cut out favouritism.
21. Improve attitude of public servants.
22. Be more pro-active approach in solving problems.
23. Have better maintenance of infrastructure and public facilities, inculcate more maintenance culture.
24. Improve and build better infrastructure.
25. Improve maintenance and management of rivers, need desilting/deepening and regular maintenance and beautification of rivers.
26. Cut the occurrence of traffic jams everywhere.
27. Improve cleanliness.
28. Adopt green revolution.
29. Reduce or cut divorce rates and single mothers. Better care for orphans.
30. Better care for old folks.
31. Families must take care of their old relatives rather than leaving them to the care of third parties.
32. Abandoned babies must be given proper care and stricter laws must be applied to parents or guardians who abandon their babies.
33. Control and/or reduce costs of goods and essentials.
34. Control and/or reduce petty crimes/drug addiction/Mat Rempits/road bullies/petty crimes.
35. Stop occurrence of floods and flash floods.
36. Increase sports development and have better facilities.
37. Have better cultural development.
38. Have a better Police/Auxiliary Police Force and Civil Defence Force.
39. Better health services.
40. Better and more effective national service programme for youths.
41. Introduce better human rights laws.
42. Introduce better animal rights laws.
43. Better care for the environment, both onshore and offshore.
44. All laws must be enforced strictly and effectively.
45. Tolerate all religions other than deviant teachings.
46. Environment: Reduce carbon footprint by as much as possible.
47. Wildlife
48. Forestry
49. Indigenous people
50. Marine life
51. Flora & fauna
52. Exotic animals and birds
53. Animals facing extinction
54. Immigrant
55. Immigrant labour
56. Development of rural towns and new housing estates
57. Population increase
58. New hobbies, skills and expertise

B. Areas that need to be looked into are:

1. Agriculture:
a. We must be self sufficient in food, especially staples;
b. Less reliance on imported food;
c. More responsibility be given to the Agriculture Ministry and all agencies under them;
d. Plant more rice and make the country self sufficient in this commodity;
e. Plant better rice clone and go for the export market or sell better quality rice locally;
f. Rear more cows, goats and chickens and make the country self sufficient in beef, mutton and chevon (goat) meat;
g. Increase palm oil plantations acreage;
h. Plant more fruits that can be commercialised;
i. Produce own sugar, upstream and downstream; consume less sugar.

2. Education (see above):
3. The Armed Forces: Continue their modernisation plans and beef them up.
4. Inter - community relationship;
a. Improve inter-racial (intra-race), inter-religious relationship (intra-religion) including improving inter-community relationship.
5. Youth development:
a. They are the future of our nation;
b. Introduce better programmes for our youths to keep them off the streets at odd hours;
c. Introduce full-time national service programme upon reaching 19 years old, immediately after they complete their SPM examinations discard the half cock PLKN scheme under the purview of the Ministry of Defence;
d. Introduce voluntary police force to beef up our regular police force to fight and prevent crimes, a scheme to be introduced under the purview of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education.
6. Women and girls: (see above).
7. Handicapped people: (Have a special programme for them to ensure their survival and care).
8. Communications and Information:
a. Introduce cheaper high speed broadband services.
b. The whole country must be ‘wired’;
c. Allow dissemination of useful information and less censorship;
d. Cut down on smuts and pornography;
e. Encourage participation of legal and proper ‘online’ businesses;
f. Use the internet to enhance learning.
9. Infrastructure and public transportation:
a. Improve LRT and monorail services;
b. Improve bus and taxi services;
c. Introduce MRT service (JV with SMRT, Singapore);
d. All fares for public transportation to be paid b EZ Link pre-paid cards, no cash at all to avoid haggling and abuse by operators;
e. Build more roads, highways and bridges at state and national level;
f. Reduce tolls;
g. Large companies and GLCs to merge with foreign established companies to improve quality of service, companies suggested are MAS, KTMB, Ports, etc.;
h. All taxis and buses to be owned by quasi bodies, no private owners;
i. Nationalise all public transportation companies;
j. Build bigger and deeper drains to avoid flash floods;
k. Better maintenance of infrastructure.
10. Technology: Adopt latest technologies, embrace, upgrade and update.
11. Power Supply:
a. Introduce nuclear power;
b. Introduce wind generated power supply;
c. Introduce power supply from biomass products or by-products;
d. Be less dependent on fossil fuel for power.
12. Water:
a. Supply better treated cheaper and healthy water to all homes.
13. Gas:
a. Have cheaper piped gas supply to all homes.
14. Better housing for the poor and the medium income earners.
15. National service – introduce a better, comprehensive and more useful programme along a similar line to Singapore’s, Sweden’s or Switzerland’s.
16. The economy:
a. Improve GDP;
b. Increase exports;
c. Look into ways to make our currency (Malaysian Ringgit) stronger;
d. Be more competitive;
e. Increase FDIs;
f. Be more investor friendly;
g. Control and reduce the flow of money out of the country;
h. Introduce GST;
i. Have more SMEs;
i. Introduce more assistance and incentives, make the T & C and the access easier for SMEs;
ii. Invite foreigners to JV with local entrepreneurs;
iii. Have more hi-tech and technology products companies;
iv. Introduce special incentives for companies using ‘green’ technology;
v. Have better co-ordination between government agencies, venture capital companies and commercial banks;
vi. Allow better access for SMEs to get financial aids, loans and grants;
vii. Lend expertise to SMEs;
viii. Encourage SMEs to go global and manufacture products that can be sold in markets like China, India, USA, Europe and Japan.
17. Improve foreign relations and understanding especially relationship and understanding with all ASEAN member countries.
18. More employment opportunities for all levels of skills and expertise.
19. Retirement Age:
a. Increase general retirement age of civil servants to 65;
b. Increase retirement age for key and professional jobs and occupations such as medical specialists, doctors, dentists, judges, lawyers, engineers, architects, quantity surveyors, land surveyors, teachers, scientists, etc. to 75. After 65, put them on a year-to-year contract with conditions.
20. NKRA/KPI: Enhance.
21. All consorts and spouses of King, Sultans and Head of States shall perform only ceremonial duties and shall not get involved at all with their partners work or duties.
22. Increase substantially all ministers, deputy ministers, political secretaries, parliamentary secretaries pay, perks and etc. to avoid corrupt practices.
23. No politicians shall serve in GLCs or any government commercial profit making agencies.
24. No rulers or politicians heading federal or state sports associations.
25. Meritocracy shall be the main criteria in hiring professionals and administrative staff for all government departments, universities’ academic staff, GLCs, quasi bodies and agencies.
26. Instil better values and nationhood in people, respect seniors and the elders at all levels regardless of sex, age, race, language or religion.
27. Less or no women to be involved in prostitution, less number of men seeking their services, less broken marriages, less divorces, no babies discarded upon illegal birth, no illegal births, better upbringing of children, no abuse or mistreatment of children, better family values; abolish poverty (see above).
28. Abolish ‘tidakapathy’ and ‘anything can do one - good or bad doesn’t matter’ attitude in our people, especially civil servants, for the sake of the country.
29. To ensure that:
a. Everyone has food on the table;
b. Everyone has a roof above their head;
c. Everyone has clothes on their back;
d. Every child receives basic education;
e. Everyone receives training on basic life skills (soft and hard skills);
f. Everyone is literate;
g. Everyone has access to health service.

In order to achieve all the above, and more, we need a qualified group of people who are committed, dedicated, diligent, sincere, honest and hardworking and do not have any personal agendas or personal interests.

Essentially, Malaysia only needs a two-party system, though it is seen that opposition parties are trying to form an opposition coalition party and trying to match the ruling BN coalition, I see them, at best, a loose association and more like ‘ a mongrel type’ of coalition comprising people with differing views and ideologies and they won’t last. They are not really a united opposition and are seen to be continuously fighting against each other and this is bad for the country.

A leader needs to be healthy and fine, have common sense, completed tertiary education (preferably and at least, and with a first degree from a recognised university, locally or anywhere in the world) , can speak and write good English and Bahasa Malaysia with an optional third language ( Asian - Mandarin preferably), good personality (acceptable looks and projects a good image (especially for the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister), intelligent, considerate, popular (in a sense) and fair, have no personal agenda and no personal interest whatsoever, not corrupt at all, be able to 'walk the talk' (I am referring to good talks only), diligent and hardworking (do not easily fall asleep), don't have a spouse advising him (in particular, the Prime Minister), (I said spouse!), must believe in religion and worship one and practise it faithfully (regardless of the religion), he is a visionary, a good orator in at least two languages, can debate well in parliament (so that he cannot be made fun of), can write well to, sharp, intelligent and able to accept criticisms and will admit faults. He must be able to make decisions and be responsible for his decisions, and be able to correct the wrongs quickly, have a sense of responsibility, and all the other good traits a member of the cabinet/state assemblies/lawmakers must have.

The people must choose carefully and wisely and endeavour to look for people like this who fit the above description and they will be the people who voters will vote for and who the people will allow to govern us and the country and lead us into the future and lead Malaysia towards becoming a fully developed, prosperous, peaceful and harmonious country, a place for all Malaysians regardless of race, language or religion.

Footnote:

This manifesto will be revised and improved from time to time and will include items that are missing or overlooked. All comments and/or criticisms are welcome. hak55.